Charmaine Davis, vice president of Marsh USA and current chair of the National African-American Insurance Association, responded to the following NU questions as she prepared for the NAAIA's annual meeting this week in Philadelphia.
NU: Could you describe your ascent to become chair of NAAIA?
Ms. Davis: My former employer, Denise H. Lloyd of D.H. Lloyd & Associates, became the first chair of the NAAIA in 2001. She lured me to the insurance industry as a producer of commercial lines coverage.
As a member of NAAIA, I supported Ms. Lloyd in her role as chair and had the opportunity to work on the program committee, which was responsible for the annual conference.
My continued commitment to NAAIA resulted in a board appointment. As a result of a midterm leadership change, I was elected vice chair in 2005 and assumed my current role as chair in 2006.
NU: What do you see as your greatest accomplishment, both on the business side of insurance and with respect to furthering the goal of greater diversity?
My greatest accomplishment is serving as an example of opportunity to young people and minorities in the profession. As a manager of a diverse workforce, I make sure I provide equal opportunities for my staff when hiring, assigning accounts and steering their careers.
As it relates to furthering the goal of diversity, I will continue to leverage my position to help forge opportunities that support commercial diversity initiatives as they pertain to economically empowering the minority agent/entrepreneur.
NU: What are some of the challenges facing people of color in insurance?
Challenges at this time continue to be job opportunities. While companies are more inclusive with their hiring practices, the numbers of minorities represented at the senior management level still remain few and far between. Therefore, inclusion remains a challenge, often resulting in minorities leaving the industry.
For the insurance entrepreneur, the challenge is limited access to more profitable business opportunities largely controlled by the large brokerage firms. Also for the agency owner, a challenge is the lack of a perpetuation plan that could offer economic longevity.
NU: What can be done to meet the current challenges, and how did you overcome challenges that you faced?
Companies are working to improve the retention of minority employees, but [diversity] will more than likely continue to be driven by the economic impact for companies.
As it pertains to minority agency owners, I believe [progress will be realized] once the federal and state government programs, even large corporations, work with the minority agency to ensure that requests for proposal have requirements that include increased minority participation levels, or even better on a primary basis. We are beginning to see communities and corporations trend in this direction by inserting voluntary minority participation requirements, but it's not enough.
Finally, we as a community are responsible for presenting opportunities to our young to seek benefits of entrepreneurship, by taking over the family agency, as a viable, vibrant career option.
I can attest my success to my NAAIA membership. Through networking, I met many mentors in the industry today.
Sometimes it would be the one person to encourage you to continue to make yourself heard by your managers, or seek project opportunities that can propel you, or just that person to say, "Hang in there just a little longer."
Of course, the pursuit of industry-related education has been important. My first employer encouraged me to seek my CIC designation, which has proven professionally beneficial.
"While companies are more inclusive with their hiring practices, the numbers of minorities represented at the senior management level still remain few and far between."
NAAIA Chair Charmaine Davis
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